Improvement in paper made from reeds



PATENT OFFIC HENRY LOWE, OF BELLEVILLE, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN PAPER'MADE FROM REEDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 23,099, dated March 1,1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY LOWE, of Belleville, in the county of Essexand State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Article ofManufacture or Paper Made from Reeds; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full and exact description thereof.

Man y eiforts have been made to manufacture paper from reeds; but uponreducing the reed fiber to a sort of pulp it has been found hithertoimpossible to produce paper by any ofthe processes known topaper-makers. After a long series of experiments I have successfullyreduced to practice the art of manufacturing reeds-the Arundt'nam'alilacrosperma of Michaux, commonly used forifishing-polesinto paper, thesaid manufacture being readily and economically produced.

My invention consists in a new article of manufacture or paper made fromreeds-the Arundinaria macrosperma of Michaux. V

To enable others skilled in the art to manufacture my paper, thefollowing description is given.

I take the article called reeds, which are found in the swamps of theCarolinas and are commonly used for fishing-poles, being known tobotanists as the Awmdinam'a macrospermct of Michaux. These reeds areevergreen and may 'be gathered at any season of the year; but

winter is preferable, as they then contain less sap, and the expense ofgathering them, on the whole, is less than at other seasons. The reedsare run between two crushing-rollers, the lower one being speeded aboutone hundred and fifty revolutions, more or less, as desired, and drivingthe upper one. The rollers are fluted, so as to cut the stock about halfan inch in length. Theupperrollerhassprings attached, so as to meet theinequalities of thickness of thereedsr Bythis means the reeds arecrushed and cracked in pieces, so as to destroy the joints andfacilitate the other operations of boilingand grinding. Two thousandfour hundred pounds of the cracked reeds are furnished into arevolvingjron boiler, (diameter five feet by ten feet in let gut such asis commonly used for boiling paper-stock. To every one hundred pounds ofreeds from ten to fifteen poundrfofbaiistic" soda are added and aboutone hundred'afid fittygallons of water. The boile'r'isthen-closed andset iir niotion and a pressure of steam, from five pounds to seventy,

is let into the boiler. I prefer to use from five to ten pounds, as itelfects the boiling completely, and the cost of the fuel is very light.The effect of using a higher pressure of steam is to make the stock darkfor wrapping-paper; but the wasteis considerable whena-high pressure isemployed. I prefer darkening the stock by using but ten pounds ofcaustic soda and boiling only ten hours, twelve hours being found thebest length'of time to boil the stock, (unless it be requireddark-colored,) and from twelve to fifteen pounds of caustic soda to onehundred pounds of reeds.

A tank furnished with an agitator which makes about fifteen revolutions(more or less) is constructed under the boiler. When the reeds areboiled the man-head is taken off, the boiler is set in motion, and thestulf falls into the tank, which has been previously supplied withsufficient water to make the stuff thin enough to pump and furnish intothe pulpingengine invented and patented by Joseph Kingsland, J r., ofFranklin, New Jersey. The stuff, which is kept agitated with the water,is pumped up and furnished into the engine, by which it can be at oncereduced to pulp, run into the vat, and thence to the paper-machine.

Alum may be added to the stock either immediately after it leaves theboiler or after it is reduced to pulp. The object of using the alum isto strike the gummy matter from the alkaline solution for the purpose oflessening the waste; but its use is attended with practicaldifficulties. If added when the stock leaves the boiler, it makes thestock wild and difficult to pulp. If added later, it makes the stuff soslow that it cannot be removed from the wire-cloth without usingsuction-boxes with pumps of sufficient force to draw the water from itbefore it reaches the coucher, or the paper will crush. I find the bestplan to operate upon the stock after boiling is to keep it warm in thevat after it is let down from the boiler, reduce it by means of theKingsland engine to a kind of half-stuff, merely setting the engine soas to open out the fiber, and letting a stream of water flow with thestock thus prepared into a tank built in any suitable manner, so thatthe liquor can drain off. When drained, it intended for bleached stuff,water is run through the mass until the water comes away clear; then thestuff is bleached in any suitable way. Such processes as are used forbleaching straw will answer; but the purest bleach is effected by theprocess used for bleachin g cotton goods.

When the paper is to be made the washed or bleached stuffis introduced,with sufficient water, into a chest where it is kept in agitation.Thence it is pumped up and furnished into the Kingsland engine andreduced to pulp. I prefer to have the knives in said engine quite dull,so that they will pound the stock to pulp. Other fibrous matter may besplit or linted out; but such treatment will not do for reeds, as thefiber is cut and the papertender. In fact, the reed pulp so treated willnot make paper, for it cannot be got over the machine. The art of makingpaper from reeds depends on reduciu g the fiber to a very minute stateof division-- more so even than with any other stock. The reduction mustbe effected by a pounding process, or some similar mechanical action.Reed pulp is most perfect when the fiber is reduced to its ultimatestate of division, as deposited in the stock by nature. Yet it it mustbe remembered that the reduction must be effected in such manner as notto cut the fiber, or the paper cannot be produced, or it will be sotender as to have no value. I find the most successful mode of operatingis to make the disk of the Kingsland engine with steel knives of fromthree-sixteen-ths to four-sixteenths inch on the face and the back andfront plates of brass, composed of tin and copper, with double thenumber of knives used for grinding rags, said knives being aboutone-eighth inch (scant) on face, the object being to do a large amountof light pounding and rubbing on the stock, so asto disintegrate andlimber the fiber. This engine is used for pulping the stock.

For making half-stuffI have in use a Kingsland engine, the disk madewith knives a full one-eighth inch on face and cast-iron back, andfront-plate knives afull one-eighth inch on face, same number as usedfor pulping rags, &c. This engine can be used for pulping reeds, butdoes not do such good work as the one described with brass plates. Orthe Kingsland engine may be varied in the construction of the knives.Forinstance, it may be made the same as for grinding rags. It is not avital feature that the engine should be constructed as Ihave described;but a variation of its construction is'attended with a depreciation ofthe quality of the paper.

The remaining details of the process ofmaking and finishing differentkinds of paper may be conducted in the manner well known topaper-manufacturers.

, In the manner above described I have succeeded in making papereconomically and of excellent quality.

Accompanying this application are twelve specimens of reed-paper madeaccording to my invention. Specimens 1 and 2 were treated with alum.Specimen 3 was also treated with alum, allowed to stand twenty-fivedays, and ground a third time through a Kingsland engine. This thirdgrinding did the fiber no harm,

though the same amount of grinding would have ruined other stock.Specimen 4 was made without alum. No. 5 is of the same, but is partiallybleached. No. 6 is not bleached, butis more thoroughly washed. No.7 wasmade with a low pressure of steam, and the result proved highlyadvantageous in thesaving both of fuel and of stock. No. 8 is made fromthe same half-stuff as No. 7, chloride-of lime, copperas, and soda-ashbeing added. No. 9 is made from the odds and ends of the papers of theforegoing specimens. Othe'r stock beaten as much as this would have beenutterly destroyed. Specimens 10 and 11 differ mainly in the relativethickness of the stud when furnished to the engine. The inferior qualityof N o. 11 was caused by the thinness of the stuff. Specimen 12 is madefrom stuff partially rotted, subjected to high-pressure boiling, andfrom broken Manila paper.

As paper-manufacturers sort and mix different stocks in variousproportions in order to produce in the paper peculiar qualitiesessential to the purpose for which it is designed, so I do not confinemyself always to the employment of reed pulp alone, it beingsometimesrequisite, in order to produce the desired qualities in some grades ofpaper, to add small quantities of other fibrous matter-mot for thepurpose of economy, the reeds being the cheapest raw material known, noryet to make reed pulp suitable for paper-making, it being in itself,when properly prepared, perfectly adapted thereto, but solely to supplysome requisite feature in the paper to adapt it'to special purposes.

The process of making paper from the reeds above mentioned may besomewhat vvaried without departing from the principle of my iuvention.Thus cream of lime may be used in stead of caustic soda; but I preferthe latter. I do not therefore confine myself to the process abovedescribed, which process is here set forth merely to illustrate myinvention and to enable others to make reed-paper.

I am aware that reed fiber has been reduced to a sort of pulp; butprevious to myinvention it has been found impossible practically tomanufacture paper therefrom.

I do not claim the above-described process.

for preparing reed fiber, a patent for the same having been granted meby the United States in 1858; nor do I here claim .the art of malt

